Sunday 14 February 2016

Psycho Play (Psycho Pass Movie review)



Opening Songs
OP 1 - Who What Who Want (Ling Tosite Sigure)


Ending Songs
ED 1 - A Beast Without A Name (EGOIST)

Genre: Action, Science Fiction, Psychological, Thriller

Episodes: 1



More "Psycho Pass" is always a good thing. I enjoyed the shit out of the first season of "Psycho Pass", and while I thought it was a downgrade, season 2 was still pretty enjoyable to watch by itself. Now with the movie, which advertised the returned of Kogami, it was time to get hyped once again to enter the shoes of Tsunemori Akane. this time entering the realm of southeast asia to deal with some fishy business with the top brass over there. ...Its still a good movie, but I'll say this much: unless they pull off a villain that's at least on the level of Kamui, let alone touching the soles of Makishima, "Psycho Pass" is a lot less endearing to watch. The movie does stray somewhat from the core "Psycho Pass" routes, but more importantly, it lacks a powerful villain that packs the charm, charisma or intimidating aura of the previous franchise bad boy representative. "Psycho Pass" does show its age, and that unless they come up with something fantastic, its going to be a lot less charming than its supposed to be.



Oh man, Akane as the new section head is just sexy as hell.


It wouldn't be "Psycho Pass" without Ling Tosite Sigure, and of course, he sings the opening theme for the movie, which is "Who What Who Want". As usual, it sparks the feeling of death and mind f*ckery, which fits perfectly for the "Psycho Pass" franchise. Its not as good as "Enigmatic Feeling", which is still my favorite Ling Tosite Sigure song to date, but its certainly better than "Abnormalize", which is incredibly overrated in my opinion. The ending theme is just "A Beast Without A Name" by EGOIST, while its still one of EGOIST's best songs, its the ending theme in season 1, nothing new here.



Rating: 7.5/10



While the movie DOES continue the "Psycho Pass" story, I feel that it wasn't nearly as interesting as the past 2 seasons. Since its only a 90 minute movie at best instead of the usual season long run of 11+ episodes, there isn't much to work with here that can be long or endearing enough. Since the main point of this movie is to appeal to the fans by bringing Kogami back, the movie does do a pretty good job in that aspect alone. Otherwise, the rest of the movie is pretty standard at best, it might not even be as interesting by normal "Psycho Pass" standards. No obligatory mind f**ks, no mind blowing villainous schemes, no insane plan to completely f**k with the system (what's present in the movie is severely underwhelming), that's almost everything that makes "Psycho Pass" incredibly satisfying to watch. There are things that the movie does accomplish quite well though. For one: Kogami's return is great and we get to see more of that character. The movie also focuses a lot on its action sequences these time around, there's a lot of fighting and gun play, which hasn't really been the focus of "Psycho Pass", but its still nice to see. Also, since the movie focuses a lot on Akane, we get to see how she's changed as a character, so there's that.



Akane has never had good relationships with anything Cybil related.


Following the events of "Psycho Pass" II, Akane and her division continue to work for the bureau as part of their star team. A recent smuggling event has Akane and her team going against a group of terrorists with proper, real life guns, instead of dominators. In their world of futuristic Japan, that is unheard of. Of course, these enemies all have insanely high Psycho Pass values, so they are easily dispatched, however, this raises some suspicions within the higher ups. Following the investigation and tracking down the origin of these men shows some photos from southeast Asia, and one of them even shows a man that looks to be the spitting image of Kogami Shinya, Akane's old mentor/enforcer that left Japan as a fugitive after the events of season 1. After getting permission, Akane leaves for this country to not only investigate the events of the terrorists further, but also to track down Kogami, and see with her own eyes if everything is real.


I'm not sure if "Psycho Pass" is going to keep going as a franchise, but with the way the movie ended, its very well possible, though the probability of Kogami making future appearances is going to vary quite heavily. To me, while the movie was pretty good, "Psycho Pass" is at its best when it makes full blown seasons of at least 12 episodes or more, the movie doesn't really DO much. Still, this is a good watch for fans of the franchise, that I won't deny.